NAVIGATE: Understanding NAture's multiple Values for InteGrATion into dEcisions
Lead Research Organisation:
ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Human activities are directly and indirectly depleting the World's natural resources. At the same time, we rely on these resources for our livelihoods and well-being. Urgent action is thus needed to better manage our impact on the natural world. A key factor driving these negative impacts is that the decisions that people, businesses and governments make tend to be based on a limited set of nature's values that tend to be linked to economic markets. In biodiversity economics, these values are called 'instrumental' values: the predominantly monetary benefits of goods and services people obtain from nature. However, the global assessment on the value of nature has identified several other 'non-instrumental' value concepts, which include: relational values (the value we have for our relationships with nature); transcendental values (our overarching principles and life goals); shared values (collective values that expressed by groups, communities and cultures); and intrinsic values (values for nature independent of human welfare). NAVIGATE aims to enhance our understanding of these non-instrumental value concepts and explore how these values might be better integrated into economic thinking and policy decisions.
Our research will undertake detailed reviews of the 'non-instrumental' value concepts. We will draw on a range of scientific perspectives to provide greater clarity on definitions of these value concepts, how they might be measured (using both monetary and other indicators) and how they might best be integrated into policy and business decisions. We will also ask decision makers whether they currently consider these values, and if not, how they think they could incorporate them. Based on the above, we will develop methods for assessing these values and feeding them into policies.
To test our ideas, we will apply our methods to four case studies that will value the non-instrumental values associated with forests and woodlands. Our case studies include: the UK national forest; a new woodland that has recently been planted in Wales to store carbon, reduce flooding and promote outdoor recreation; urban woodland in the City of Helsinki, Finland; and conservation woodlands in Tanzania that provide timber products to the UK market. With the help of local stakeholders and policy makers, we will explore options to feed our findings relating to the value of our case study forests / woodland into actual policy decisions, through a range of existing and new approaches, such as cost-benefit analysis, natural capital accounting and deliberative democratic valuations. Conventional economic measures tend to only consider the instrumental values of nature, but it has been argued that better decisions could be made for our planet if the policies also account for a wider range of values including non-instrumental values, expressed in both monetary and non-monetary terms.
The outputs from our research will include: a series of scientific papers and policy guidance documents for embedding non-instrumental values into decisions. We will also produce a video and infographics to explain the implications of our research to the public.
Our research will undertake detailed reviews of the 'non-instrumental' value concepts. We will draw on a range of scientific perspectives to provide greater clarity on definitions of these value concepts, how they might be measured (using both monetary and other indicators) and how they might best be integrated into policy and business decisions. We will also ask decision makers whether they currently consider these values, and if not, how they think they could incorporate them. Based on the above, we will develop methods for assessing these values and feeding them into policies.
To test our ideas, we will apply our methods to four case studies that will value the non-instrumental values associated with forests and woodlands. Our case studies include: the UK national forest; a new woodland that has recently been planted in Wales to store carbon, reduce flooding and promote outdoor recreation; urban woodland in the City of Helsinki, Finland; and conservation woodlands in Tanzania that provide timber products to the UK market. With the help of local stakeholders and policy makers, we will explore options to feed our findings relating to the value of our case study forests / woodland into actual policy decisions, through a range of existing and new approaches, such as cost-benefit analysis, natural capital accounting and deliberative democratic valuations. Conventional economic measures tend to only consider the instrumental values of nature, but it has been argued that better decisions could be made for our planet if the policies also account for a wider range of values including non-instrumental values, expressed in both monetary and non-monetary terms.
The outputs from our research will include: a series of scientific papers and policy guidance documents for embedding non-instrumental values into decisions. We will also produce a video and infographics to explain the implications of our research to the public.
Organisations
- ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Helsinki (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Coed Cadw The Woodland Trust (Project Partner)
- E F T E C Ltd (Project Partner)
- Nestle UK Ltd (Project Partner)
- NATURAL RESOURCES WALES (Project Partner)
- Basque Centre for Climate Change bc3 (Project Partner)
- Dept for Env Food & Rural Affairs DEFRA (Project Partner)
- WELSH GOVERNMENT (Project Partner)
- Mpingo Conservation Project (Project Partner)
- Scottish Forestry (Project Partner)
Publications
Kenter JO
(2025)
Toward a relational biodiversity economics: Embedding plural values for sustainability transformation.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
| Description | The IPBES Values Assessment showed that people value nature in many different ways. These include instrumental values (the benefits nature provides, such as food or recreation), relational values (people's sense of connection, responsibility, or cultural relationships with nature), and intrinsic values (the idea that nature has worth in its own right). However, the Assessment left open an important practical question: can these different types of values be clearly separated and measured using survey-based economic valuation methods? As part of the UKRI-funded Navigate project, our research explored this question through a series of studies in the UK, Finland, and Tanzania, each designed to understand how people express different types of values for woodlands and woodland management. UK and Finland Studies We carried out large online surveys in both countries, using a method where participants choose between different woodland management options. These experiments aimed to see whether people responded differently when value types were framed in alternative ways. In the UK, the survey used the IPBES "life frames" (living from, with, in, and as nature) to subtly highlight different types of values. In Finland, the survey made value types explicit, asking people to think directly about instrumental, relational, and intrinsic values when making choices. Across both countries, people consistently expressed a mix of all three kinds of values. However, neither method was able to separate these values into distinct categories in a reliable way. People seemed to integrate all value types when making decisions, and the different framings made little difference to the economic values they assigned to woodland management. Ongoing analysis is exploring whether particular groups-such as those with strong cultural or emotional ties to nature-place greater emphasis on relational or intrinsic values than others. Tanzania Study We also carried out a survey and a series of community workshops with villagers in Tanzania who rely heavily on nearby woodlands for their livelihoods. This enabled us to explore how value types operate in a very different cultural and economic setting. Villagers identified a wide range of benefits from woodlands, including: instrumental values, such as fuelwood, medicine, grazing, and materials for everyday use; relational values, including cultural traditions, community identity, and stewardship responsibilities; intrinsic values, such as the belief that woodlands and wildlife should be protected for future generations. As in the UK and Finland, people in Tanzania tended to express these values simultaneously rather than separately. The workshops confirmed that villagers think about woodlands in a holistic way, integrating livelihood needs, cultural meanings, and moral responsibilities. Overall Conclusions Across all three countries, the project found that: People consistently hold multiple types of values for woodlands. These values are deeply interconnected and difficult to separate in surveys, even when different framing strategies are used. Economic valuation results tend to be stable across framing approaches, suggesting that respondents naturally integrate different considerations when making choices. Recognising relational and intrinsic values remains important for policy design, especially in places where communities have strong cultural, identity-based, or livelihood-related ties to nature. These findings highlight that while stated preference methods are useful for understanding broad public preferences, they may not fully capture the richness or distinctiveness of different value types. Policymakers may therefore need complementary approaches-such as participatory methods or deliberative workshops-to more effectively incorporate the full diversity of human-nature relationships into decision-making about forests and land use. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings from the UK, Finnish, and Tanzanian studies provide a practical evidence base that can be taken forward by policymakers, land managers, NGOs, and community groups working on forest planning and nature-based solutions. First, the research shows that people consistently hold a mixture of instrumental, relational, and intrinsic values for woodlands-regardless of whether they live in a high-income European urban context or rely directly on forests for their livelihoods, as in Tanzania. This insight can help policy organisations and government agencies design more socially responsive forest strategies by explicitly recognising cultural, wellbeing-related, and moral connections to nature alongside economic benefits. Second, the finding that different survey framings do not substantially change valuation outcomes suggests that environmental economists and consultants can simplify future valuation studies without compromising reliability, potentially reducing costs and improving usability in real-world policy appraisals. Third, the more nuanced qualitative insights from community workshops-in all three countries-provide practical guidance for forest managers, municipalities, and NGOs on how to engage communities meaningfully, especially where relational and cultural ties to nature are strong. Finally, these results can support international bodies and researchers seeking to operationalise the IPBES Values Assessment by offering an empirically tested approach to integrating plural values into decision-making about forests, conservation, and land-use change. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Although it is still too early to demonstrate formal or measurable policy impact, the project has already contributed to raising awareness among policy makers, NGOs, and businesses of the importance of recognising the multiple values of nature in environmental decision-making. Through stakeholder workshops in the UK, Finland, and Tanzania, the research has helped organisations reflect on how instrumental, relational, and intrinsic values can meaningfully shape woodland and green-space management, wellbeing initiatives, and community-based conservation planning. At the international level, Prof Mike Christie presented the findings of the IPBES Values Assessment-which he co-chaired-at COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This presentation also highlighted the Navigate project's contribution to operationalising multiple values of nature through empirical work in Europe and East Africa. The CBD has since adopted a decision requiring governments to take account of the IPBES Values Assessment and to incorporate the multiple values of nature into national biodiversity strategies and action plans. This international mandate creates a clear pathway for the Navigate project's findings to inform future policy processes, providing governments, practitioners, and researchers with practical insights on how plural values can be embedded in biodiversity planning, valuation exercises, and land-use decision-making. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2025 |
| Sector | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Influencing national and international policy on embedding nature's multiple values in decisions |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | The Navigate project has achieved reach at both national and international levels through its contribution to the global discussion on integrating the multiple values of nature into environmental governance. Its findings were highlighted by Prof Mike Christie in his presentation of the IPBES Values Assessment at CBD COP16, held 21 October-1 November 2024 in Cali, Colombia. At COP16, Parties adopted Decision 16/11, which requires governments to take account of IPBES assessments-including the Values Assessment-when updating their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Because Navigate provides practical, empirically tested methods for operationalising multiple values of nature, these tools and insights can now directly support governments, NGOs, and advisory bodies as they respond to the CBD's mandate. As countries embed plural values into biodiversity planning, the Navigate project's approaches offer an evidence-based pathway to design more socially legitimate, culturally grounded, and equitable conservation and land-use policies. |
| Description | Policy maker and community feedback workshop in Tanzania |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | MUST Enabling Multispecies Transitions |
| Amount | € 3,000,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 922/2009 |
| Organisation | Academy of Finland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Finland |
| Start | 09/2023 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Title | Survey to assess Tanzanian rural communities values of nature |
| Description | A survey of villagers in our Tanzanian case-study areas was undertaken to investigate how local communities value nature in relation to woodland management. The survey incorporated a Global Person Generated Index (GPGI) model that captured the diverse ways in which woodland sites contribute to individuals' wellbeing through different activities, experiences, and place-based connections. The survey also included a choice experiment designed to elicit respondents' trade-offs among key woodland management attributes and to quantify the instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values associated with different management options. In total, 200 villagers from across the study sites completed the survey. To complement the survey and explore these issues in greater depth, we conducted a series of community workshops in the participating villages. These workshops generated richer qualitative insights into how communities interact with local woodlands, how management practices affect their livelihoods and wellbeing, and how different value dimensions are understood and prioritised in everyday decision-making. In addition, we also held a stakeholder workshop to explore potential impact of our research findings for future woodland policy programmes in Tanzania. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Our findings show that Tanzania villagers attribute a diverse range of values-instrumental, intrinsic, and relational-to nature within the context of community woodlands. While the survey approach successfully captured the presence of these multiple value dimensions, it did not enable clear statistical separation of the individual value components. A draft manuscript detailing these results has been prepared and is scheduled for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in 2026. |
| Title | Survey to assess UK farmer's willingness to enhance nature on their farms. |
| Description | An online survey of 160 UK farmers was conducted to assess their willingness to engage in alternative woodland management programmes. The survey incorporated a choice experiment designed to elicit trade-offs among key woodland attributes and to quantify farmers' preferences and values for different management options. To complement the survey findings and gain deeper insight into farmers' motivations, constraints, and decision-making processes, we also held a series of follow-on workshops, which provided richer qualitative evidence on the factors shaping their woodland management preferences. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Our findings indicate that farmers are, in general, supportive of woodland management on their land. However, their willingness to engage in woodland creation programmes is strongly shaped by the opportunity costs associated with replacing existing farming activities, which remain a key barrier to participation. In addition, farmers expressed lower levels of support for programmes that require public access, reflecting concerns about privacy, liability, and potential disruption to farm operations. A draft manuscript presenting these results has been prepared and is scheduled for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in 2026. |
| Title | Survey to assess the UK publics' values of nature |
| Description | An online survey of the UK public was undertaken to investigate how people value nature in the context of UK woodlands. The survey incorporated a Global Person Generated Index (GPGI) model that captured the diverse ways in which woodland sites contribute to individuals' wellbeing through different activities, experiences, and place-based connections. In addition, the survey included a choice experiment designed to elicit respondents' trade-offs among key woodland attributes and to quantify instrumental, intrinsic, and relational value dimensions. In total, 750 respondents from across the UK completed the survey. To complement the survey and explore these issues in greater depth, we conducted eight public workshops in our case-study areas. These workshops provided richer qualitative insights into how communities relate to woodland landscapes, the ways in which woodland management affects their wellbeing, and how different value dimensions are understood and prioritised in practice. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Our findings show that people attribute a diverse range of values-instrumental, intrinsic, and relational-to nature within the context of UK woodlands. While the survey approach successfully captured the presence of these multiple value dimensions, it did not enable clear statistical separation of the individual value components. A draft manuscript detailing these results has been prepared and is scheduled for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in 2026. |
| Title | Survey to assess the value of urban green space in Helsinki, Finland. |
| Description | An online survey of Helsinki residents was undertaken to investigate how people value nature within the context of urban green spaces. The survey included a choice experiment designed to elicit respondents' trade-offs among key urban green-space attributes and to quantify the instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values associated with different management options. In total, 750 residents from across Helsinki completed the survey. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Our findings show that Finnish people attribute a diverse range of values-instrumental, intrinsic, and relational-to nature within the context of Helsinki's urban green spaces. While the survey approach successfully captured the presence of these multiple value dimensions, it did not enable clear statistical separation of the individual value components. A draft manuscript detailing these results has been prepared and is scheduled for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in 2026. |
| Description | Academy of Finland project - MUST Enabling Multispecies Transitions |
| Organisation | University of Helsinki |
| Country | Finland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Aberystwyth University is a key international partner of this €3million Academy of Finland project. The funding to Aber Uni will support a PhD studentship. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Aber Uni will provide expertise on valuing nature and ecosystem services. We also have a Welsh Case study in which research ideas will be tested. The project funds will be used to fund a 3 year PhD studentship. |
| Impact | None yet |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Stakeholder workshop - Navigate project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The stakeholder workshop comprised a mix of policy makers, NGOs and businesses. The aim of the workshop was to explore stakeholder's understanding of the diverse values of nature (including instrumental, relational, intrinsic, and shared values), the extent to which they currently consider these values in decisions, and opportunities to further embed them in future decisions. The outcome of this would help guide our empirical research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |